Leaked Emails Show Hurricane Chaos

Leaked emails have shown how The Federal Emergency Management Agency was rife with infighting and chaos following Hurricane Katrina and how it fretted about media coverage and criticised local officials.

The emails bring to light that even before the hurricane hit land, there was animosity between certain officials and that the then FEMA head was worried about the media presence in the area.

The area is still reeling from Hurricane Katrina which is now estimated to have cost more than 1,200 people their lives.

right, after all the fake news about the killings and rapes etc, you honestly expect any of us to beleive this garbage? ShortNews is turning into a haven for conspiracy theory whackos and its getting OLD.

This site is one very big joke if you really come here for news. Most of it is tainted with half truths, propaganda and just outright lies. The news sources here range from terrorist supported agencies like Al-Jazeera to CNN and some that are just an idiot in his basement putting up websites. First and foremost you will find that few know what they are talking about and most simply don't care if what they are reading is the truth as long it supports their warped view of the event. It seems as of late that regardless the story it is always twisted to be anti-American and hate speech. The majority that post here are of little education and those that do have some intelligence are usually twisted by the lies and propaganda of closed news countries that suppress the real truth. Brain washed individuals germinate here and are supported by those that wish to further their hate speech and deception.

As far as the current story, it misses a very important fact. The loss of life would have been avoided had the city used the 480 + buses to move out the cities residents instead of leaving them parked at the city lot and had the governor declared martial law and forced the evac by the national guard this wouldn’t even be discussed. Yes FEMA failed in many areas but the beginning of the problem was far before FEMA was a fault.

From your profile that you yourself have never even posted any news to the website, so how can you flame everyone that does? Do you have anything better to do than sit in front of a computer and flame people for doing something you don't even have the nerve to do? It will be said once again, if you don't like the posts or the news on this site, then leave it and never come back again. Our feelings will not be hurt.

I agree that the odd piece of biased news does appear on SN from time to time, but I have to disagree with you that this is the general case.

Al Jazeera is no more a "terrorist supported" news organization than CNN is a news organization supported by the US government. If you call one biased, then please tell us why the other one isn't equally biased.

"It seems as of late that regardless the story it is always twisted to be anti-American and hate speech"

Gee I wonder why that is. Perhaps you can offer some insight on this?

Could it be that a great many people outside the US just happens to share the same "warped" ideas about where the US is leading the world at the moment?

Of course, by "busy," I mean "ignoring his failure and apparently undeterred." Of course, he can't win an argument because we're all hideously biased and uninformed, so now he just makes baseless accusations of bias whenever possible.

Hey, there is no rule that you have to post either but you do that so nicely. If you believe that the news is so bias, or that there are "idiots" posting it, then post some of your own. That way, us dumb folk can marvel at your amazingly neutral news source.

If ShortNews is so biased, and written by uninformed, undereducated people who are so anti-US, then why do you spend so much time reading and commenting here? Do you do it just to infuriate yourself? That's pretty masochistic.

For example, I'll use one of the "news" sites you have quoted in the past - http://www.jihadwatch.org/... - I have looked at that website and its supposed news articles, and I see it for exactly what it is - the right-wing anti-Islamic rantings of one man... do I visit it every day, and read all the one-sided stories that have a pro-US right-wing spin on them, and frustratedly comment on the site that it is biased and evil? No, I do not, I choose not to visit it and I choose not to let it bother me that it exists.

CNN is not supported by the U.S. Government nor is it controlled by the U.S. Government. It is an independent company owned by shareholders world wide. My point was not the bias of one or the other but the range of news agencies that are used and the ridicules nature of what is used for factual news.

“Could it be that a great many people outside the US just happens to share the same "warped" ideas about where the US is leading the world at the moment?”

That point I have no doubt of but isn’t that just possible due to misinformation and propaganda you have ingested instead of factual evidence?

You have willfully quoted what mberg said out of context. The full context of the quote was:"Al Jazeera is no more a "terrorist supported" news organization than CNN is a news organization supported by the US government."

But, hey, when have you ever been involved in a fair and mature discussion, right?

why do you spend so much time reading and commenting here? Do you do it just to infuriate yourself? That's pretty masochistic.”

I came to this site out of interest for a story I saw scrolling across the bottom of another website. I arrived to find the information on the story was false, misstated and outright wrong. I stayed long enough to point out the inaccuaracy and thought it would be corrected. What I found was fools fighting tooth and nail to keep that illusion of truth for the propoganda and pure garbage that was being reinforced. The simple fact is some of you don’t want truth you want something to talk about regardless of its validity.

Concerning this site infuriating me, it only makes me concerned that so many are lead astray by lies, lairs and the deceit they spread.

“I never quoted anything from this site. I only stated that it was one of hundreds that posted information on that subject that it was posted under. The point was there was a massive amount of information concerning this subject.

“So, tell me again, why is it you visit ShortNews if it is so biased?”

The site is very biased and anyone that says its not is either blind or a liar. Ignorance is bliss for some.

You have willfully quoted what mberg said out of context. The full context of the quote was:"Al Jazeera is no more a "terrorist supported" news organization than CNN is a news organization supported by the US government."

No, actually, I simply misread what he posted.

“But, hey, when have you ever been involved in a fair and mature discussion, right?”

Once again, why do you visit it and criticise it so often if it is biased and we're all idiots? Why not just go away? Go on, do us a favour and let us all wallow in our ignorance free from your pathetic ramblings - I don't think many people would miss you.

Ok first off, everyone is talking about things other than the one that was originally posted. New Orleans transportations systems could have reacted a bit quicker than they did, but the didn't. However, FEMA should have tried to pick up the slack by doing what they needed to do to aid the situation. I don't know what that is, that's not what my job is. I would like to think that I can trust my city, state, and government that when chaos occurs in my city, that they will do something to help me out.

In regards to YKR, there is some truth to what you say. When you get online, you can pretend to be someone you aren't or make statements that are not true or don't have actual ground. But it is not likely that EVERYONE that posts an article is this way. Somebody has to tell the truth. And I too have to wonder, if this site bothers you so much, why do you visit it? You've made your point. We've noted it and racked it somewhere in the backs of our minds. Now either get back on topic, provide something true and point out what is wrong with what Hugo Chavez has posted, or leave. There is no point in you sitting here wasting your time to type a lot to just end up getting yourself frustrated again. Take up a hobby like fishing or golf, anything. It's much more entertaining than getting upset everytime you visit the same website. It's like this, if you don't like watching a TV show, simply change the channel or turn it off. Don't sit there and complain about how bad the show is. Please!

Some poeple in this post need to calm down and stop accusing people of being un-educated and anti-american etc. I wouldn't accuse any being anything except bias because you can't prove people otherwise on personal matters such as education...take a deep breathe, let them have their say...either constructively criticise with balance or ignore and provide your view well away from their post and you'll express your view without causing an opinion war in which people are accused of being morons, liberals, republicans, communists, terrorists, wackos, nuts etc.

Thats what a forum is for, debate whether it be real news or not thats what debate is for. Frankly the definition of news doesn't exist the worlds media anymore since Iraq because they fed us Sh!t and now our men and women are over there dying...and the American public voted for Bush again, so blame the media for obscure half truth news, not the users.

I actually like reading SN, it has a broad selection of news.. However, I do commend you for reprimanding this idiotic community.. I quit frankly am sick of seeing "bush this and bush that". I'll make my decision about bush if Iraq falls or not. But if Iraq succeeds and 10's of millions of peoples lives improve because of it I doubt anyone here will recognize his success.. err this is way off topic..

About time someone spoke up. I do notice alot of the news lately has really gotten to be more against the US and Bush. Then the comments posted are to the extreme left. What, did Bush show up at your house personally and piss in your cereal? Come on people, quit acting so childish!

Where was George Bush mentioned anywhere in this story? This isn't Bush bashing. FEMA bashing yes. I thought it was fairly widely accepted that FEMA had problems dealing with the Katrina emergency. This article is just going into some background on that.

Then you get all these people here blasting everyone who posts articles on SN without actually doing anything themselves.

@YKRYou call us (those posting summaries) idiots, uneducated and ignorant and say that the article is wrong without providing any proof contrary. (If you do find something wrong with the summary or the article message an admin and flag the article for blocking. Just be sure you have very good and reliable proof.)

Get off your high horse and do some grunt work!

@everyoneThe last time this forum descended to this sort of mindless bickering and name calling, a number of people were banned.

If the news posted here is not to your liking, you have two options. You may write some yourself, or you can leave. Either one would be an improvement on bitching and griping and causing animosity.

If a news strikes you as too biased, report it and let the admin team decide. Whatever it is you decide to do, I hope it includes some growing up in the process, cause hey, this is the Internet. Not the be all and end all.

looks like the worst-case scenario I thought of happened. But, since the issue is totally sidetracked and the topic now bias, here's my message for YKR and anyone else b-tching about it: SUBMIT OTHER NEWS! The tired "media bias" talking point works well for pundits who can preach to masses of people who are not journalists and have no ability to submit news, but it's ABSURD here. You think the news here is slanted to one side of the story? Great, submit news that shows the other side! It should be easy since everything here is just so awful. I've become convinced that certain people are here only to troll, evidenced by their performance (or lack thereof). Submitting a story takes 15 minutes maximum, so what's your excuse? Really, I want to hear the answer.

Oh, and YKR, namcalling is SO mature after turning tail and running. Thanks for showing me once again where the low road is, but it's all yours. As the chief rabble rouser in this mess of a topic, please address the question above. I'll not delve further into this mudslinging.

This story comes as no real surprise - this sounds like the internal creaking of what we now know was a poorly functioning machine. There is so much "he said, she said" garbage here that I'd hope that they intend to purge the department of more employees than simply Michael Brown. One can blame local responders all they like, but does that make YOU feel any safer? Looking at this story and what happened in New Orleans, wouldn't you rather have emergency response functioning properly on BOTH the federal and state level? My, and your (if you're American), tax dollars are paying these people, and it would be of little consolation to me to be told, "Well, we are supposed to take over when your state government drops the ball, but they dropped it first." What this story does provide is further evidence that this department is in SEVERE need of reform. We knew that, but this shows it. Blame can be shifted, but these people did NOT have their ducks in a row.